This is a major gift to the Tate Collection of works which significantly enhance key areas in Tates representation of twentieth-century British art.

Nicholas Serota said: Gifts and bequests from major collectors are the foundation of the national collection of modern and contemporary art. Successive generations, from Henry Tate and Frank Stoop to Alistair McAlpine, Anthony dOffay, Simon Sainsbury and Janet Wolfson de Botton have generously given works to Tate for the benefit of the public. Now, Ian and Mercedes Stoutzker join this group of distinguished benefactors. In offering a gift of nine important works, the Stoutzkers have added exemplary individual paintings by two generations of British artists and have greatly enriched the national collection of art after 1960.

Mercedes and Ian StoutzkerMercedes was born in Tangier, Morocco and came to London in 1958 when she married Ian Stoutzker, a trained musician who later became a banker. She loved art and in London she had the opportunity to study and expand her knowledge and taste. She wanted to live with art and, on a very limited budget, she found that there were works by outstanding British artists which were affordable at that time. Over the years she continued to acquire works mainly by British artists and often at an early stage in their careers. Both she and Ian believe that art has an emotional dimension and that this experience should be shared by being made available in National Museums and Art Galleries.

The couple has over a long period of time supported the arts in Great Britain. Ian founded Live Music Now with Yehudi Menuhin in 1977 and has overseen its growth to become a leading outreach organisation across the UK. His most recent, of many gifts, was in 2011 to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama for the new concert hall, which is named after his Welsh mother, a music teacher who came from the mining town of Tredegar.

The Stoutzkers are based in Salzburg, Austria where they have lived for some years.